So my apartment building went up in smoke last night. Fire started on the 3rd floor and spread across the roof of building. My apartment is on the ground floor...from what firefighters have said they is no fire damage to our floor but serious smoke and water damage. Red Cross gave us a prepaid debit card for money for food...whih ended up not working last night. What is next? I have called the renters insurance company and an adjuster is supposed to call in the next day or so.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what step is next. Waitin to find out if we can get in the building to recover anything today.

Please help! I don't kno what my rights are as far as getting out of my lease and finding a new place. Any advice is appreciated!!

8/25/2013 8:13:45 AM

I'm not an expert, but I vaguely remember some stuff from my law class. I know first of all, your apartment complex should be footing the bill for a hotel room. Second of all, I'm pretty sure you can very easily break your lease right now, as your apartment is uninhabitable. I'm not sure if you have to give them a certain amount of time to correct the damage though

8/25/2013 8:59:05 AM

I would continue to lean heavily (call continually) on your insurance agent/adjuster to help you figure out what your next steps would be.

8/25/2013 1:14:23 PM

Good on having renters insurance

8/25/2013 2:38:24 PM

+1 on the landlord paying for a hotel.

And yes keep bugging your insurance agent. Become his significant other. Literally. You want to see him more than he sees his family right now, until he gets you fixed up.

8/25/2013 4:46:11 PM

The landlord does not have to pay for a hotel, the renters insurance should reimburse you for it though. Sorry to hear aboutnyour stuff.

8/25/2013 6:05:55 PM

Thanks for the advice! And yes...I plan on blowing up my adjuster's phone tomorrow. So we are all good there. We are able to retrieve most of our clothes and some personal items but all of the furniture and electronics are water logged. Haven't had to deal with hotels...been staying at my sister's apartment because of the cat and dog. Camden Crest voided our lease today with no penalty...and will be refunding the prorated portion of the rent for the last week...so far so good...just taking it an hour at a time haha

8/25/2013 9:00:58 PM

when my house got hit by the car the insurance company paid to have a team come in and pack all of my stuff up, label it all, and take it to a storage unit until I found a place, and then paid for it to be delivered. I didn't lift a finger. You can claim pretty much anything that has any damage at all. If you still have receipts it helps you get the full value that you paid for. You can say your couch smells now and claim it and they'll pay the full amount for it and you'll still get to keep it. You can do this with many things if they are damaged in any way at all.

8/26/2013 10:32:19 AM

Quote :

"Red Cross gave us a prepaid debit card for money for food...whih ended up not working last night."

Ever figure out the story here? Pretty screwed up they give you emergency money but fail to activate the card.


The whole idea behind Red Cross doing that is that when peoples residence is destroyed they can buy emergency food and clothes until they get their affairs in order (which takes a few days, especially if wallets and such are lost in the fire.

here is video of teh fire
http://www.wncn.com/story/23247937/apartment-fire-off-lynn-road-in-raleigh

8/26/2013 12:23:04 PM

http://www.wral.com/fire-rips-through-raleigh-apartment-complex/12814621/

8/26/2013 12:32:39 PM

Quote :

"The landlord does not have to pay for a hotel, the renters insurance should reimburse you for it though. Sorry to hear aboutnyour stuff."

This, assuming that the fire was caused by the negligence of another resident and not faulty wiring in the building.

As for your furniture and electronics, I can recommend an AMAZING remediation company that can pretty much make all that shit as good as new. So if your insurance company just strokes you a check for the value of those items, it might be an option to pocket a little cash if you don't want to replace everything with new stuff.

8/26/2013 12:40:53 PM

really sorry to hear about your situation

good luck

8/26/2013 2:25:02 PM

One of the girls I work with also lived here. She lost everything except what she had with her (she was not there when it happened)

Her dog also died in the fire

So sad

8/26/2013 2:27:26 PM

^

8/26/2013 2:40:44 PM

Yeah, material things can be replaced.....but not a pet.

8/26/2013 2:42:05 PM

We were on our way to Lynnwood Grill when this was happening and we could see the smoke plume all the way from the intersection of Duraleigh and Edward's Mill. Once we got to Lynnwood, the flames were giant and well above the tree line. Scary stuff.

We were wondering about pets and it's really sad to hear that some people lost some. It doesn't sound like any people were hurt though, so that's a bright side.

8/26/2013 4:20:12 PM

^^ yea everyone at work is trying to pitch in to help her out, but we dont know how to approach the dog situation... very sad

8/26/2013 5:13:16 PM

Yeah, that's a tough one to approach. I mean, it's REALLY hard to have to put down a sick pet or to lose a pet to natural causes. But I couldn't even imagine how hard it is to lose a pet like that.

8/26/2013 5:17:22 PM

Haven't been on here in a few days. Have now found another apartment and am living out of boxes. I consider myself and my boyfriend extremely lucky compared to some of he other residents. We were able to retrieve most of our clothes and jewelry and sentimental items. All the furniture and electronics are waterlogged so we didn't even try to grab them. Just filling out the spreadsheet for the renters insurance of everything that was lost.

8/31/2013 12:04:38 AM

I'm glad to hear things are coming together.

My neighborhood is right next to hillburn academy, weird to think TWW lives so close

I may have even sat next to some of you at Lynnwood and not even known it.

8/31/2013 9:21:08 PM